Allawi: 'The Iraqi people are going to prevail'
BAGHDAD, June 17 (NCA) -- Iraq's interim defense minister said today that Iraqi security forces will launch military operations soon to end a deadly insurgency.

Hazim Shalan al-Khuza'i was speaking hours after a suicide bombing at an army recruiting center in Baghdad killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 130 others.

Another car bomb attack near Balad, north of Baghdad, today killed six and wounded four members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.

Al-Khuza'i said Iraqi forces will chase insurgents from "house to house" and will mount raids on their suspected hideouts.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the government is determined to prevail over Iraq's enemies.

"This is an escalation that we have been expecting. We are going to face these escalations. We are going to face the enemies of Iraq, and the Iraqi people are going to prevail. The government of Iraq is determined to go ahead in confronting the enemies, whether they are here in Iraq or whether they are anywhere else in the world," Allawi said.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, during a visit to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, said today that Iraqi security forces "are not ready" to assume their job and promised them continued U.S. military support.